With increasing awareness of health related issues concerning livestock and the significant losses that arise from poor fertility management, the farming industry has been forced to adapt in maintaining accurate records of livestock. As the size of farms increase, the ability of a stockman to keep records and track individual animals becomes increasingly difficult. There are many known systems for electronically tagging animals for identification purposes etc. Identification data is held in a unit worn by the animal in a neck collar, ear tag or injected transponder or the like. The data can be extracted as required at fixed or mobile locations.
It is also known to utilise such tags to collect data relating to activities of the animal, for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,434. U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,434 discloses detection of oestrus in dairy cattle. A transponder unit worn in a collar around the animal's neck detects the movement of the animal. During oestrus, the animal becomes agitated and moves around more frequently. This increased activity is detected and transmitted, along with identification data for the animal, to a central processor. The data is then processed and analysed to establish whether oestrus is detected and this is indicated to the stockman. The transponder merely collects the movement data of the animal. This data is then transmitted and centrally processed. The transponder does not detect oestrus. Further only a single condition, oestrus, is monitored and the system does not provide data concerning other health related matters.
Further some existing systems require sensors to be attached invasively which is distressing to the animal and requires the skill of a veterinary surgeon. Further such forms of attachment to the animal have limited ability to transmit information from the animal for use by the stockman.
Further existing systems, such as that disclosed by GB 2347503 and CA 1296068, comprise a range of sensors for monitoring the physiological parameters of an animal for determining the health of the animal. However, these require complex and, invariably, temperamental sensory instruments in order to monitor the physiological parameters making the system overall very expensive and hence impractical for monitoring all animals in a very large herd or group in a farming environment.
Furthermore due to the complexity of these systems, they require professional assistance, such as a veterinary surgeon, to set up, program and maintain the system which is impractical for an extremely large number of animals. Further, as such systems monitor physiological parameters, it is less intuitive to the stockman, who traditionally relies on observation to monitor health, to confirm the condition indicated by the system, thus making it more difficult for the stockman to verify the accuracy of the system.
Further, in monitoring the condition of livestock, a key period for health monitoring in cattle, sheep, horses and pigs is in the period immediately before and after parturition. None of the existing systems disclose specific monitoring during such periods.
At present there is no system that can do any of the condition based monitoring of cattle necessary to improve both the health and fertility monitoring of animals. Monitoring is still by human visual observation as it has been since the first domestication of animals. However, it has become increasingly desirable for better management of livestock, in particular health monitoring in livestock in the period immediately before and after parturition and to reduce losses from dystocia, hypocalcaemia and other diseases.
It has also become increasingly desirable to reduce time lost moving animals unnecessarily for veterinary examination. Further, it is desirable to provide earlier intervention in cases of metritis and lameness and thus improve welfare and possibly productivity of animals such as dairy cattle as well as provide improved oestrus detection.
With the increasing scale of farming, it has become increasingly difficult and impractical for stockmen to rely on traditional observation techniques to ensure health and welfare of their stock. There has therefore been an increasing need for additional monitoring systems to be utilised.